Brazilian traffic warden saws woman in half

Updated Those readers who believe the UK's traffic wardens are the emissaries of Satan should count themselves lucky that they don't live in Rio de Janeiro's Botafogo district - where infractions of local bylaws can have fatal consequences.

That's what 51-year-old businesswoman Edna Souza found out after she got into a scrap with a "parking attendant" when she "left her car in front of a building where parking was banned", The Scotsman reports.

Not content with slapping a penalty notice on the vehicle, the unnamed 29-year-old male later went to the house Souza was trying to rent in the upmarket Rio district, killed her, sawed her in half, and dumped 50 per cent of his victim at the municipal tip.

A police spokeswoman confirmed the suspect had been arrested, adding: "Only the bottom part of the corpse has been found. Today police are going in force to the city waste dump, which will be combed to try to find the upper part." ®

Update

Thanks to our Brazilian readers who wrote to point out that the perpetrator was in fact a janitor at the commercial premises the victim was trying to rent. They did, apparently, row over parking, which provoked the murder.